former California High-Speed Rail Authority board member
Former California State Assemblyman (1980-1996) as Democratic Minority Leader and Chair of the Transportation Committee; consultant and board member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; former California High-Speed Rail Authority board member
Whither High-Speed Rail? The California High-Speed Rail Authority still promises a bullet train that will take a little more than two and a half hours to run between L.A. and San Francisco. But funds for the $68 billion project are proving hard to come by . Public support is down, there’s a lot of opposition from homeowners and landowners along the proposed route, and the project is at least two years behind schedule.
Metrolink to Address Safety along the Tracks In the aftermath of the crash with a freight train that killed 25 people in Chatsworth, today's Los Angeles Times reports that the company employing the Metrolink driver has had troubles in other places. Mayor Villaraigosa has called on Metrolink to review all its contracts.
Congestion Pricing: Is it Time to Charge LA Drivers for the Right to Be on the Road? New York's Mayor Bloomberg wanted to institute what's called "congestion pricing," but the state legislature turned him down cold. That made money available for Los Angeles to institute a pilot program on what used to be called "freeways." The federal government will give LA County $213 million for high-capacity buses and upgrading the Metrolink in the San Gabriel Valley. In return, the MTA will conduct pilot programs on the 10, the 210 and possible the 110 freeways.
You Can't Get There from Here Anymore Local planners say that Southern California will grow by 5 million people in the next 20 years, but past predictions of gridlock already are coming true on our streets and freeways. LA Times columnist Steve Lopez wrote about traffic "insanity" on the Westside of Los Angeles. The result was what he calls a "traffic jam of angst" in the form of reader response, not just from LA, but from Orange, Ventura and San Bernardino Counties. If you're stuck in freeway traffic, what would you pay to cut into an open lane and be on your way? Should the passengers required for carpool lanes be licensed drivers, who at least might have left their cars at home? Should Southern California finally have a real plan for growth, rather than helter-skelter development without regard to increased congestion? We look for solutions to LA’s most infuriating problem with public policy and transportation experts, and the man whose column created the bottleneck blog .
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.